Sidewalks to nowhere: Port City fills gaps for better 'walk-ability'

Friday

Jun 27, 2008 at 12:01 AMJun 27, 2008 at 7:02 AM

Judging by the map, Charlotte Davis should be able to walk or bike to the grocery store almost as easily as she did in Washington, D.C. The Lowes Foods on Pine Grove Drive is about a mile from her house.

By Sam ScottStaff Writer

Judging by the map, Charlotte Davis should be able to walk or bike to the grocery store almost as easily as she did in Washington, D.C. The Lowes Foods on Pine Grove Drive is only about a mile from her house. But halfway there, the sidewalk disappears, leaving Davis a choice of traversing the weeds, hugging the side of Holly Tree Road or just driving her car instead.“We’re so close, but it’s really hard to walk over to the grocery store, so nobody does,” said Davis, who retired to Wilmington expecting that warm weather and flat land would invite such excursions.Vanishing sidewalks, though, are a Wilmington hallmark, as anyone who has tried to tread down the city’s major thoroughfares can attest. The patchwork of pavements is a result of city policy that requires new developments to come with sidewalks, but lets be areas that built up without them.The resulting blanks, though, are getting a renewed look as soaring gas prices bring attention to finding alternative ways of travel. At a city council meeting last week, Councilman Jim Quinn asked the public to report the gaps where the least cost and effort could have the biggest impact.City staffers said they’ve been filling the gaps since well before the surge in gas, but the annual $150,000 budget for new sidewalks only goes so far, with new paving costing upward of $60 a linear foot.Priority goes to areas near medical facilities, assisted-living homes and schools, like the block of new sidewalk on Princess Place Drive being constructed to make it easier to walk to Freeman Elementary School, said Richard King, Wilmington’s director of public services.But money from the 2006 parks and transportation bonds as well as grants has given the sidewalk program a shot in the arm, King said. Last year, the city filled in a long stretch of South 16th Street from Greenfield Street to Shipyard Boulevard. This summer, it’s building sidewalks on a half mile of South 17th Street from Greenfield to Dawson streets.Next spring, the city will use a $211,000 state grant to put in more than 3,000 feet of sidewalk along Greenville Loop Road to Bradley Creek Elementary School. The city also is building a cut-through to allow kids to get there without getting on a main road at all. The biggest recent addition to the city’s “walk-ability” is the 9,600 feet of winding multiuse trail along Eastwood Road that was finished this month for a total cost near $600,000. Eventually, the nearly 2-mile hiking/biking path should tie into a planned cross-city trail. Construction starts on the other end of the trail, a half-mile section from John D. Barry Drive to Halyburton Park, this fall.Still, the additions are a drop in the bucket compared to the vastness of the city’s streets. And some roads, such as quieter suburban streets, probably will never get sidewalks, said Joshuah Mello, associate transportation planner with the city. To guide where resources do go, the city is gathering information for its “Walk Wilmington” comprehensive pedestrian plan, a $65,000 study focused on how to make the city walker-friendly, including looking at improving street crossings and sidewalks.John Melia only has to look around the corner from his house to see an easy fix. A retired military man and teacher, Melia lives in a subdivision off South 17th Street that could be an easy stroll to the Food Lion at the corner of South College Road. But in between is a quarter-mile gap in the sidewalk that helps keep his neighbors in their cars, he said. “We’re never going to be Boston or New York City as far as pedestrian accessibility,” Melia said. “But we can do a lot better. With gas at $4 per gallon, this would be a way to encourage folks to get out of the car for those short trips to Food Lion.”Even small additions can make a big difference to some. Since PPD’s headquarters opened more than a year ago, downtown developer Dave Spetrino has been so irked by the lack of sidewalk in the block between the corporate tower and downtown shops that he offered to build it himself. In his mind, the gap amounts to an invitation to get in your car and go elsewhere for lunch.But this week, the city began filling in the missing block with sidewalk.“I am thrilled,” Spetrino said. “It’s the neighborly thing to do.”